Lyrics
Against The Grain (2025)
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One More Chance
Every time the lights go down
You think of her
Though she may as well be
A million miles away
You swear you feel her heart beat
She seems so close
And you count up all the reasons
She should’ve stayed
But the past makes no excuses
And the ones you choose are useless
And you wonder what you’d do
With one more chance
Would you hold her tighter
Make your love shine brighter
And find that light inside her
If she’d give you one more chance
Morning makes your bedroom glow
As you lying there
You remember when her heart
Was yours to hold
If you could you’d turn back time
To better days
And change whatever
Made her love grow cold
You’d fill all the missing pieces
And give her everything she’s needed
Change her heart and make her see
With one more chance
You would hold her tighter
Make your love shine brighter
And find that light inside her
If she’d give you one more chance
written by Lance Cowan & Sam Gay
Forrest Hills Music / Sony ATV Acuff Rose Music (BMI)
Will Belinda
The moon was like a spotlight
He felt winter closing in
As he rode down from the Black Hills
Will Belinda was headed home again
Robbed a bank in Rapid City
Spent 3 days running for his life
Thought he’d lost them in the Badlands
Long before heading home that night
By tthe firelight he held her
And whispered as she cried
He said “someday, I’ll find a way
“To stay here by your side”
The moon was setting on the valley
As a posse gathered on the ridge
They saw the smoke rise from the chimney
Of the house where Will Belinda hid
By tthe firelight he held her
And whispered as she cried
He said “someday, I’ll find a way
“To stay here by your side”
As he walked out early morning
Seven gunmen shot him down
She ran out from the cabin
To Will Belinda, laying onl the ground
By tthe dawn’s light she held him
And whispered as he cried
She said “someday, you’’ll find a way
“To stay here by my side”
written by Lance Cowan & John Tirro
Lantzapalooza Müzik (ASCAP), Mondo Zen Music (ASCAP)
I Can’t Stand The Winter
I tape the windows up
Throw a blanket by the door
But the cold wind still blows in
I turn the heater up
Throw a log on the fire
But this drafty house still will not give in
I can’t stand the winter
The cold stillness in the air
That cuts right through you
And lingers on so long every year
It just reminds me
How it was warm when she was here
I turn the coffee on
Tell myself this house is warm
But can’t convince my feet that’s true
So I sweater up my heart
By remembering the parts
Of a burning fire that I once knew
I can’t stand the winter
The cold stillness in the air
That cuts right through you
And lingers on so long every year
It just reminds me
How it was warm when she was here
I never noticed these cold nights
Her love kept me warm inside
God I hate the winter
The cold stillness in the air
That cuts right through you
And lingers on so long every year
It just reminds me
How it was warm when she was here
written by Lance Cowan
Forrest Hills Music / Sony ATV (BMI)
​
More or Less
Who’d have thought
Looking back now
I’d have come this far on my own somehow
At times I’ve thought
How things could’ve been
If I’d just let down my guard and let you in
I think about you every now and then I guess
I wonder if you ever found true happiness
Life has had it’s ups and downs I must confess
Since you’ve gone I’ve done my best
More or less
Days go by
Months roll on
And leave little memories that tag along
They say time
Heals all wounds
Maybe someday baby I’ll be over you
I think about you every now and then I guess
I wonder if you ever found true happiness
Life has had it’s ups and downs I must confess
Since you’ve gone I’ve done my best
More or less
I think about you every now and then I guess
I wonder if I’ll ever find true happiness
Life has had it’s ups and downs I must confess
Since you’ve gone I’ve done my best
More or less
written by Lance Cowan
Lantzapalooza Müzik (ASCAP)
​
The Ragged Edge of Nothing
Out on this desert road
Half stoned and freezing cold
I count the cost of leaving you alone
God made a woman’s heart
A perfect work of art
It takes a foolish man to tear it apart
I look out on the vanishing horizon
I close my eyes and see you there
One time you and I we were really something
Now I’m out here hanging on
The ragged edge of nothing
I walk through memories
I sleep but never dream
I’m haunted by the way we used to be
written by Lance Cowan & Terry Clayton
Lantzapalooza Müzik (ASCAP), Custer City Music (SESAC)
​
Old King Coal
I was born here in these foothills
Of this old Kentucky town
Where the green trees touch the grey sky
Above a deep dark ground
Where the coal beats like a heart in this land
It’s been a grave to so many of my friends
Like my daddy I followed
My granddad to those mines
It was the summer of my 19th year
When I saw my last days’ light
It’s been years since I tasted my first earth
I’ve forgotten what those early years were for
And I sing this song for Old King Coal
And the only way of living that I’ve known
For the years that were stripped from my life
I’m praying for the strength to say good bye
To Old King Coal
I’ve grown thick skin
To all the young men
Coughing up the dust from their lungs
It feels like hard times
Ain’t that hard to find
When you’re selling out your life by the ton
Through the years I’ve weighed losses and gains
Sometimes it feels this whole world is caving in
And I sing this song for Old King Coal
And the only way of living that I’ve known
For the years that were stripped from my life
I’m praying for the strength to say good bye
To Old King Coal
written by Lance Cowan
Forrest Hills Music / Sony ATV (BMI)
​
Prayer For A Child
In the days before my children
At night before the dawn
I laid awake thinking of tomorrow
Under phases of the moonlight
As it moment passed along
I counted up the days like they were hours
As I watched the seed of life taking hold
I felt the seed of doubt begin to grow
For the future is so fragile
And this world is so hard
And the lessons that I’ve learned are so uncertain
The things I have believed in
The dreams I’ve leaned upon
Are questioned with each new step of this journey
Still with every seed of doub that grows
I’ve felt a kind of love I’ve never known
This is a prayer softly spoken for a child
That he may see the hope for his time
And he may grow with peace in his life
This is a prayer softly spoken for a child
I longed to be a father
Even when I was still young
But I guess I never dreamed this day would come
So I strengthen my commitment
For this life I’ve taken on
God help me as I lead him down this road
May I teach the right steps to take
May he learn to see through my mistakes
This is a prayer softly spoken for a child
That he may see the hope for his time
And he may grow with peace in his life
This is a prayer softly spoken for a child
This is a prayer softly spoken for my child
written by Lance Cowan
Lantzapalooza Müzik (ASCAP)
​
Against The Grain
Captain Philo Jones
Was the captain of his home
Finest vessel never set to set
He built her from the ground
And every plank from stern to bow
Was dry-docked in a landlocked field of wheat
He loved boats but feared the water
Quoted Melville, hated Faulkner
Longed to smell the salty ocean breeze
By the sun he knew the time
By the moon he knew the tides
By the stars he chart his course into his dreams
He sailed against the grain
Far beyond the Kansas Plains
Floating on the amber waves
He sailed against the grain
The Captain told tall tales
Of mermaid songs and whales
Creature from the deep that he’d dreamed of
The only time he’d seen the sea
He started trembling in his knees
And wondered was it fear or was it love
He sailed against the grain
Far beyond the Kansas Plains
Floating on the amber waves
He sailed against the grain
written by Lance Cowan & Sam Gay
Forrest Hills Music / Sony ATV Acuff Rose Music (BMI)
​
Goin’ South
She took a bus from her hometown
Packed up her jeans and an old nightgown
She left a note on the door
Said “I won’t be back here anymore
I’m getting out
Heading out
Goin’ South
She took two books to pass the time
Gone with the Wind and a book of rhymes
For three days and two long nights
She slept she read, she stared at the lights
She said “This must be
What it’s all about
Goin’ South
And in her south-bound state of mind
She is less confused
She’s more defined
She’s so amused
At all she’s finding out
About herself
Goin’ South
She settle in to a tiny place
Spanish moss and faded lace
Warm hearts and gentle smiles
She says she just might stay a while
Without a doubt
She’ll always be
Goin’ South
written by Lance Cowan & David Mallett
Lantzapalooza Müzik (ASCAP), Mallett Music (ASCAP)
Love Anyway
Sometimes people can be so mean
Make you question the things you believe
You may wonder was it ever what you thought
Did we ever stand together
What tore us apart
Did we surrender to all the pain
All the chaos
All the rage
Love anyway
Love anyway
In spite of the anger
In spite of the hate
Love anyway
Love anyway
If we ever hope for change
If there’s ever hope for change
Love anyway
Dark is darkest where the is no light
Wrong is wrongest when there is no right
Lies are lies that are never true enough
Hate is hate
In the absence of
But there is hope on common ground
All that matters
Is love anyhow
Love anyway
Love anyway
In spite of the anger
In spite of the hate
Love anyway
Love anyway
If we ever hope for change
If there’s ever hope for change
Love anyway
written by Lance Cowan
Lantzapalooza Müzik (ASCAP)
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So Far, So Good (2024)​
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So Far, So Good
Another cup of coffee black
Another ache in my poor back
You’d think by now I’d have the knack
Of traveling alone
But it’s just me in this old car
On a thousand miles of broken tar
I just saw a falling star
So far, so good, so far
From home
I’ll bet the folks all miss me so
Maybe not, well who could know
Things like that are touch and go
But what’s a man to do
I’m out here on this interstate
It’s 3 am and I’m wide awake
And as long as this old car don’t break
So far, so good, so far
From home
And the ones I love
And all I’m thinking of
Is turning this car around
Another cup of coffee black
Another ache in my poor back
You’d think by now I’d have the knack
Of traveling alone
When I’m old and when I’m tired
I’ll sit home and I’ll stoke the fire
Until then I’m up for hire
So far, so good, so far
From home
– Lance Cowan / David Mallett
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This Heart Of Mine
Everybody tells me to just rest easy
They don’t believe it should take much time
Everybody tells me I’ll find another
But they don’t know this heart of mine
Everybody tells me your leaving will help me
It’s for the best, they say, I’ll find
But all that they see is their own situation
They don’t know this heart of mine
This heart of mine is forever
This heart of mine is for sure
Though you’re gone I can’t forget ever
This heart of mine is still yours
Everybody tells me they know how I’m feelin’
They’ve all felt worse pain sometime in their lives
Funny but that don’t bring no healing
They don’t know this heart of mine
This heart of mine is forever
This heart of mine is for sure
Though you’re gone I can’t forget ever
This heart of mine is still yours
You packed your bags and all your belongings
You walked right out of my life
Now I’m praying soon you’ll start longing
For the heart you left behind
This heart of mine is forever
This heart of mine is for sure
Though you’re gone I can’t forget ever
This heart of mine is still yours
– Lance Cowan
​
Little Johnny Pierce
Little Johnny Pierce grew his hair long
Sat on his front porch singing Dylan songs
All the neighbors wondered “what the hell was goin’ on
When he mowed a peace sign right into his parent’s front lawn
Yeah, yeah
Well his teacher and his preacher and his parents all concurred
“We gotta nip this thing before it grows much worse”
They said “Johnny get your head out of the clouds and come down to earth”
But they could see through his Lennon glasses he did not hear their words
Is it all just a passing fad
This talk of love and brotherhood
If it was as simple as that
Wouldn’t life be good
Yeah, yeah
“Peace on the Earth” was the wish he made
When he blew out 18 candles on his birthday cake
Even Uncle Sam sent a card to celebrate
Johnny was so scared to go but too scared to run away
Is it all just a passing fad
This talk of love and brotherhood
If it was as simple as that
Wouldn’t life be good
Yeah, yeah
So many years have come and gone
So many memories have passed along
The neighbors sometimes hear those old Dylan songs
And his dad still mows a peace sign in the front lawn
Yeah, yeah
– Lance Cowan / Terry Clayton
For You
It’s the glow of a ghost in the darkness
It’s the whisper of words never said
It’s the spark in the eye of the believer
And the vision he hasn’t had yet
It’s the sigh of a fire softly dyin’
It’s the stillness of pools underground
It’s the screams of a raven that’s cryin’
For treasure that cannot be found
It’s the spirit of tender hearts broken
It’s the wish on a falling star
It’s the thunder of a new generation
It’s the promise in the breath of a baby asleep in your arms
It’s the passion of wind in the canyon
It’s a callin’ you can’t understand
It’s the silver of frost in the garden
It’s the lines in the palms of your hand
It’s the fight of the lonely survivor
It’s the shade of the family tree
It’s the fragile future unbroken
It’s whatever you want it to be
The love I have for you
– Lance Cowan / Mark Elliott
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Lost & Found
There’s a little house on the skirts of town
I remember it well, I can see it now
White frame on hallowed ground
Where most of my soul was lost and found
Bought a beat-up Falcon when I turned 18
And I sped away for a childish dream
Never looked back, never turned around
I was headed out to get lost and found
I was headed out to get lost
Man it’s a twisted road
That leads you to God knows where
Suddenly back where you come from
Is no longer there
New lines on a young man’s face
Where the miles of time are so clearly traced
Too soon the years unwound
And left so much of me in the lost and found
I was yearning for a simpler truth
And I found my way back to the place of my youth
White frame had fallen down
Just one dream that was lost and found
So many dreams get lost
Man it’s a twisted road
That leads you to God knows where
Suddenly back where you come from
Is no longer there
– Lance Cowan / Sam Gay
​
Currently Red
She’s got a fake Picasso hangin’ on her wall
She bought it at the new frame place down in the mall
She’s got a 2-karat cubic zirconia ring
Man, what a deal, that Home Shopping tv!
And her hair is currently red
She speaks faux French while sipping on California wine
She says ‘s'il vous plait, Ernest & Julio, do it up right”
She strokes her porcelain china siamese
And basks in the shade of a silk ficus tree
And her hair is currently red
Sometimes she talks a little too much
She gets rattled and nervous
She loses her touch
But don’t ever doubt her
She means just what she says
And her hair is currently red
There’s a red rhinestone heart she uses to button the sleeve
Of a synthetic leopard-skin jacket she got from me
I know there are those who would question her tastes
Just they way they did mine on our very first date
And her hair is currently red
Sometimes she talks a little too much
She gets rattled and nervous
She loses her touch
But don’t ever doubt her
She means just what she says
And her hair is currently red
– Lance Cowan / Sam Gay
​
The Letter
The letter that you wrote me said you were doing well
But the more I read between the lines the sadder I felt
Though you told me that you missed me
It was easy to tell you were fine
You said you fit in easy and you found a place to stay
With a little bit of luck you might find a job today
But just when you’d be back home to me
Is gettin’ hard to say at this time
All in all you say it’s for the best
More and more you need me less and less
You said that I was welcome to come out anytime
Your new friends would like to meet me
You’d show me the sites
But every time I call you say the time ain’t right right now
Baby I’m the last one to keep you from your dreams
I guess that I was hoping your dreams included me
And it’s hard letting go
When you try to spread your wings and fly
All in all you say it’s for the best
More and more you need me less and less
– Lance Cowan / Terry Clayton
​
A Place For Everything
In my father’s house and his back yard
There are piles of junk and two rusted cars
They remind him of his younger days
He keeps his memories all over the place
He’s a packrat of some great repute
A fact that no man could dispute
Mom just shakes her head and sighs
And keeps her kitchen clean
Ahh there’s a place for everything
So why can’t he ever find anything
Still it comforts him just knowing
That it’s always there if he needs it
He’s built sheds and barns to house his stuff
There are shelves and bins and hooks and dust
His little empire fills him up with pride
The neighbors cringes, he just smiles
Ahh there’s a place for everything
So why can’t he ever find anything
Still it comforts him just knowing
That it’s always there if he needs it
Well I must admit I understand
These traits we share with his old man
Dad’s got higher piles of junk than mine
But I’m sure I’ll catch up in time
Ahh there’s a place for everything
So why can’t I ever find anything
Still it comforts me just knowing
That it’s always there if I needs it
He’s got buckets full of rusted bolts and two drawers packed with old remotes from tvs that died long ago and ashes from an old wood stove
His work bench is piled with wires and screws and things he’s not sure what they do, he’s got stacks of shingles, He’s got a perfect roof
And old electric motors too
Ahh there’s a place for everything
– Lance Cowan / Sam Gay
​
Blue Highway
Well I grew up on the side of a blue highway
In a town not much more than a wide, wide place
Rand McNally never called our name
They just traced the curves in the blue highway
I guess I’ve seen most all the 50 states
On vacationing station wagons license plate
They were lost and wondering how they’d strayed
And wound up on this blue highway
That blue highway
You might get lost before you find your way
Though it winds and winds
It always winds up someplace
That blue highway
I was 17 when I got the need to go
‘Cause I’d seen my dreams go rumblin’ down that road
Mama cried, daddy waved
When I pulled out on that blue highway
That blue highway
You might get lost before you find your way
Though it winds and winds
It always winds up someplace
That blue highway
Well I chased my dreams down that broken yellow line
Burnin’ up the young years of my life
More and more I miss that place
At the far end of this blue highway
That blue highway
You might get lost before you find your way
Though it winds and winds
It always winds up someplace
That blue highway
– Lance Cowan / Sam Gay
​
Fields of Freedom
She sits down on the edge of the field
Where the deep black forrest hesitated
She had come over so many miles
Running from a hate that she hated
In her eyes you could see her pain
The numbers on her wrist were her new name
And she cried for the lives left behind
But she smiled for her own life was regained
Said said “Freedom I feel
“It’s the flowers in the field
“That no one marches over
“Here in the sunlight
“Of a German afternoon
“I found a field of flowers in full bloom”
In her ears she could hear the sirens
The cryin’ dyin’ youth of war
As she turned and walked back into the forrest
She prayed “Lord save this field for freedom
“And may others follow”
“Cause freedom I feel
“It’s the flowers in the field
“That no one marches over
“Here in the sunlight
“Of a German afternoon
“I found a field of flowers in full bloom”
– Lance Cowan
​
Sound Of My Home
I’ve seen every tie and spike on this track
All of 47 years
Carried old ladies trunks on my back
Shoveled coal for engineers
I first took the throttle at 21
Haulin’ soldiers back from war
Sometimes I have wondered why I stayed so long
In the saddle of this old iron horse
Well maybe it’s the smell of the oil and smoke
The squeal of the wheels
And the headlights choked by the dark
And while others hear a lonesome whistle moan
i just hear the sound of my home
There once was a time when this engine did roar
And her silver sides would shine
Now it’s grown tired and its finish is worn
But then, so am I
Round the bend is Birmingham, my final stop
I’ll drop the throttle one last time
But I’d gladly give up this new gold watch
For one more mile down the lines
Well maybe it’s the smell of the oil and smoke
The squeal of the wheels
And the headlights choked by the dark
And while others hear a lonesome whistle moan
i just hear the sound of my home
– Lance Cowan / Jerry Vandiver
Mr. Ben McGhee
Mr. Ben McGhee just turned 93
Though most folks would never guess his age
He’d farmed all of his life
Out lived his daughter, sons and wife
And rarely spoke about his younger days
He had an old Silvertone
He kept hangin’ on his wall
Every night he’d take it down
And play his favorite songs
He’d sing one for his country
One for his Lord
And he’d laugh when he sang about that old T Model Ford
He sang one for the woman who shared his life
And he’d save that one for last
Cause she always made him smile
Mr. Ben McGhee felt as fit as he could be
The morning they took him to the home
And though his mind was crystal clear he would sometimes disappear
And travel in his dreams back to the farm
He kept that old Silvertone
Leanin’ against the wall
Every night he’d pick it up
And play his favorite songs
He’d sing one for his country
One for his Lord
And he’d laugh when he sang about that old T Model Ford
He sang one for the woman who shared his life
And he’d save that one for last
Cause she always made him smile
Well Mr. Ben McGhee passed away in his sleep
I guess it was a peaceful way to go
Then they sent for me to gather up his things
And as I sat there in his room all along
His old Silvertone
Was leanin’ against the wall
So I picked it up
And played his favorite songs
I sang one for his country
One for his Lord
I even laughed when I sang about that old Model T Ford
I sang one for my granddad who shared his life
And I saved that one for last
Cause he always made me smile
– Lance Cowan / Sam Gay
​